Stacking couch: Rolf Heide and his idea
Take a look at the time in the mid-sixties: There is no Ikea in Germany, your furniture consists mainly of heavy wooden furniture, and you crave for air and lightness in your home. There was the kit that readers could order exclusively from ChroniquesDuVasteMonde, like a revelation: four pieces of wood, a mattress and a slatted frame. Two times it becomes: a double bed or two single beds or a pile, the perfect guest bed. What for all life - and now a classic.
Rolf Heath, 80, one of the most well-known German interior designers and designers who worked for the major players in the industry at home and abroad, has succeeded in reducing his product to the essentials. To this day, he believes: "Too much superfluous is designed." Whether it's experience from his carpentry apprenticeship, the study at the Kiel Muthesius-Werkschule or simply the rejection of exaggeratedly decorative design, Heide's motto is "simplicity". For him, successful product design means making oneself invisible in the perfection of the object and investing so much effort in the design that this effort is no longer felt.
Heide completed his training at a time when the economic miracle caught on in Germany and there were still visions in the design: In the fifties and sixties, the Ulm College of Design propagated the "good form". Products should be practical, make life easier for people and also beautify everyday life. An Aliensbach study from 1954 said that 30 percent of young people wanted to live differently than before. A huge opportunity for designers to do pioneering work - like Rolf Heide with the stacking bed. The bed has been in continuous production since 1966. Even then Rolf Heide realized the dream of a mobile, independent and flexible lifestyle. Exactly what is up to date today.
Three questions to Rolf Heide
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Do you sleep on a stacked bed yourself?
Rolf Heide: No. But I had a long time as a guest bed in our house. Meanwhile, this stacked bed is with my grandson and does their services there.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: In which surprising places did you come across the stacked couch?
Rolf Heide: She always meets me. I see her with friends and acquaintances and most recently at the exhibition "Weltmeister Design Germany" in Munich. Since 1966, about 250,000 to 300,000 pieces have been sold all over the world.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: What wishes do you have for modern design, what would you like to give to young designers?
Rolf Heide: I often miss intelligent, good ideas. I think it should be designed more user-oriented and less decorative and stylish.
